Should Congress Provide Blanket Immunity For Wiretaps?

Telecom Immunity: It's Up To The House Now

Update: 19.15 Pacific
House Democrats push for 21-day extension of the Protect America Act, which expires Friday. President Bush opposes any extension of the Act. With no action, FISA reverts to pre-Patriot Act language.

If you believe in the Constitution ... if you believe that White House actions require more than "make it so" commands to be judged legal under the Constitution ... then you need to contact your US Representative. Now. (Note: most of the readers of USP oppose telecom immunity -- see the poll.)

Political expediency is the name of the day; President Bush threatens to veto any FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) legislation that does not contain immunity for telecommunications firms that performed warantless wiretaps at Administration behest.

So Democrats in the Senate capitulate: today 18 Democrats joined the 49 Senate Republicans to keep the telecom immunity provision in FISA. Who were they? Bayh, Carper, Conrad, Feinstein, Inouye, Johnson, Kohl, Landrieu, Lincoln, McCaskill, Mikulski, Ben Nelson, Bill Nelson, Pryor, Rockefeller, Salazar, Stabenow and Webb. Clinton did not vote; Obama voted against amnesty. (See details on 12 key senators.)

Coupled with last week's admission by the Department of Justice that there will be no investigation of the waterboarding of Gitmo prisoners because the DOJ had ruled the practice "legal" at the time, Americans who believe in the rule of law should be up in arms. Glenn Greenwald details the damage:

The Senate today -- led by Jay Rockefeller, enabled by Harry Reid, and with the active support of at least 12 (and probably more) Democrats, in conjunction with an as-always lockstep GOP caucus -- will vote to legalize warrantless spying on the telephone calls and emails of Americans, and will also provide full retroactive amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms, thus forever putting an end to any efforts to investigate and obtain a judicial ruling regarding the Bush administration's years-long illegal spying programs aimed at Americans...

[...]

Analogously, in 1973, The Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize for its work in uncovering the Watergate abuses, and that led to what would have been the imminent bipartisan impeachment of the President until he was forced to resign in disgrace. By stark and depressing contrast, in 2006, Jim Risen, Eric Lichtblau and the NYT won Pulitzer Prizes for their work in uncovering illegal spying on Americans at the highest levels of the Government, and that led to bipartisan legislation to legalize the illegal spying programs and provide full-scale retroactive amnesty for the lawbreakers. That's the difference between a country operating under the rule of law and one that is governed by lawlessness and lawbreaking license for the politically powerful and well-connected.

From Frank Church and the bipartisan oversight protections of the post-Watergate abuses in the mid-1970s to Jay Rockefeller, Dick Cheney, legalized warrantless eavesdropping and retroactive telecom amnesty in 2008 -- that vivid collapse into the sewer illustrates as potently as anything could what has happened to this country over the last eight years.

Reminder: Rockefeller has three telecoms in his top 10 political campaign donors: AT&T Inc, #2; Time Warner, #5; Verizon, #7.

^{Related: What is cloture? ; What is FISA? ; What is the RESTORE Act? ; What is the wiretapping issue? ; What happened in August to make warrantless wiretaps temporarily legal? ; FISA Reports to Congress, 1979-2006 ; Getting To Know Your Government: The Senate}

What can you do?

IF the House holds firm on its original version of the bill (ie, rejects the Senate version), then the matter is punted to a conference committee. That, in and of itself, does not guarantee that the immunity provision will be deleted from the final bill, however.

Firedog Lake and Glenn Greenwald have started an online petition, asking the House to stick to its guns and its own FISA reauthorization bill, called the RESTORE Act.

By all means, sign the petition. But don't stop there.

Pick up the phone and contact your Representative. Phone calls "count more" than faxes which "count more" than emails which "count more" than online petitions. Think about it -- there is a time and resource cost associated with the phone call. If calling's not an option, then FedX a letter. (I've called mine -- will you call yours?)

This is far more critical (Clinton advisers, listen up) than electioneering.

Also, see

• What happened in August to make warrantless wiretaps temporarily legal?
• FISA Reports to Congress, 1979-2006
• Senate Vote Set For Monday; Details On 12 Key Senators
• Senate Moves Closer To TeleCo Immunity
• Telecom Immunity Still In Play

Roll call vote information:

• Dodd Amendment (31-67-2)
  D's voting no: Bayh (IN), Carper (DE), Conrad (ND), Feinstein (CA), Inouye (HI), Johnson (SD), Kohl (WI), Landrieu (LA), Lincoln (AR), McCaskill (MO), Mikulski (MD), Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Pryor (AR), Rockefeller (WV), Salazar (CO), Stabenow (MI), Webb (VA).
  Not voting: Clinton (D), Graham (R)
• Final Vote (68-29-3)
  Ds voting "yes" on bill with immunity provision: Baucus (MT), Bayh (IN), Carper (DE), Casey (PA), Conrad (ND), Feinstein (CA), Inouye (HI), Johnson (SD), Kohl (WI), Landrieu (LA), Lincoln (AR), McCaskill (MO), Mikulski (MD), Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Pryor (AR), Rockefeller (WV), Salazar (CO), Stabenow (MI), Webb (VA), Whitehouse (RI).
  Not voting: Clinton (D), Graham (R), Obama (D)